Chasing Sunsets
by arieswrites
Summary: The Bellas go on a roadtrip and Beca discovers that life isn't always as hard as it seems.


_Well I'm running down the road trying to loosen  
My load, got a world of trouble on my mind  
Lookin' for a lover who won't blow my  
Cover, she's so hard to find_

All Beca had ever really wanted was to live in peace, alone with her music and thoughts, but life was a tricky thing and dreams are ever-changing. The circumstances we are thrust into or choose to wrap ourselves in have wide-reaching effects; something Beca hadn't considered all those months ago when she auditioned for a goofy singing group because a pretty girl, with the voice of an angel and eyes to match, asked her to. If someone had told her back then that she would grow to love everything about that silly singing group - the mouth noises and the bickering and cheesey choreography – Beca would have laughed in their face. And if someone had told her that the biggest reason why she loved the Bellas so much was because she had found a family in those girls, well, Beca might not have ever auditioned at all.

But that was the old Beca. The old Beca preferred to be lonely with herself rather than be left alone by people she cared about. The old Beca thought a sweet boy making her laugh meant that they were supposed to fall in love. The old Beca wanted nothing more than to run off to L.A. and make a whole new life for herself. And the new Beca still yearned for L.A., but she wanted to bring her old life with her. Well, she wanted to bring parts of it anyway… Parts with wild, red hair and the most expressive blue eyes she had ever seen. Parts with annoying, prodding fingers poking into her ribs, trying to wake her up. And, wow, that was really starting to hurt.

Beca groaned and rolled over, trying to escape the incessant needling coming from her best friend. And she knew it was Chloe because who else would voluntarily try to wake her up? Beca was _not_ pleasant in the morning. Chloe wasn't giving up though. Her needling shifted to shoving and then to shaking.

"Becs, come on, wake _up_!"

"Go 'way Chlo, 'm sleeping," Beca grumbled, her voice groggy from sleep and muffled through the blanket she had pulled over her head; the blanket that Cloe was now attempting to wrestle from her.

"Up, up, up! A Bellas meeting was called twenty minutes ago, which means we're already a half hour late by Aubrey's standards!"

Beca whined, burying herself further into her pillow, while simultaneously cocooning herself in the cover Chloe had been trying to pull away. "That doesn't even make sense and school's over in three days. No more meetings."

Chloe huffed, hands on her hips and a mischievous glint in her eye. Beca, still trying to become one with her bed couldn't see Chloe and was therefore wholly surprised when 130 pounds of absolute dead weight collapsed on top of her, all boney knees and warm skin.

"Jesus Chloe, how many elbows do you have!? They're everywhere." They seriously were. How could someone be poking every single sensitive spot on her body simultaneously? Beca could feel the blanket being pulled down from her face and huffed, finally opening her eyes enough to glare at the angelic elbow monster she called her best friend.

Chloe simply smiled back down at her, because of course she was happy right now. She loved the mornings (and it _was_ the morning according to Beca even if her clock read 1:30 p.m.) and she loved annoying Beca. This was probably akin to a second Christmas for her. "Please get up. Aubrey's' already texted me twelve times since she called the meeting and I think she might have an aneurism if we don't show up in the next ten minutes. Also, good morning, sunshine. Or, well, good afternoon, I guess. You're, like, a really late sleeper."

"Thanks, I'm going for a record. Now go away so I can continue with my task." Beca knew that that was never going to happen now that Chloe had gotten her to open her eyes. The girl was like a damn dog with a bone. A really sweet dog that somehow always smelled like flowers.

"Beca Mitchell, you will get out of this bed right now or, so help me Madonna, I _will_ come back with a bucket of ice water," Chloe said. Her eyes were narrowed and her voice was low, but there was something in her eyes – always the eyes – that told Beca Chloe was mostly kidding. Mostly. There was a small chance that, under the right circumstances, Chloe would absolutely pour a bucket of water on Beca to get her out of bed. The circumstances so far didn't make that seem likely, but Beca decided to give in anyway because she really didn't want to deal with Aubrey scolding her today. It had nothing to do with how she always ended up giving into Chloe's wants and demands because she loved making the other girl happy. It had nothing to do with that at all.

"Ugh, fine, you win." Beca said, rolling her eyes. Chloe beamed and rolled off her and began rifling through Beca's drawers.

"You have, like, no clean clothes. You're really gonna regret not doing laundry sooner," Chloe said, picking out Beca's clothes – something she had been doing more and more.

"And why's that?" Beca asked. She grabbed the clothes from Chloe and motioned for her to turn around, still not fully comfortable changing in front of her.

Chloe shook her head good-naturedly at Beca's shyness but turned anyway. "You'll find out at the meeting."

"Ugh, you know I hate surprises."

"Well, you'll just have to power through it anyway because Aubrey will kill me if I tell you and you end up skipping the meeting."

"Fine, whatever. You can turn around now."

Chloe turned, smiling softly when her eyes found Beca again. It was a special smile she didn't see very often from her friend and it always made her stomach flip. It was just so… _gentle_.

"I really like that shirt on you." Beca crinkled her entire face in confusion. The shirt in question was four years old and had had so many holes she had to cut it into one of those sideless shirts. "Anyway," Chloe continued, snapping out of whatever she had been thinking about. "Let's go. Bree's probably planning where she'll bury our bodies right now."

xxxxx

They made it to the meeting ten minutes later, Beca nursing the biggest cup of cafeteria coffee she could get her hands on, only to be greeted by a very huffy Aubrey glaring at them. If looks could kill… Well, honestly, Beca would have died the first day they met. The other girls didn't look especially thrilled either.

"Nice of you two to join us. We've only been waiting an hour," Aubrey snipped. Beca knew that despite how much Aubrey had loosened up over the last few months, she was still tightly wound and was easily stressed. She actually felt kind of bad for contributing to that stress.

"It's actually only been, like, twenty very annoying minutes," Cynthia Rose said, no doubt trying to relieve Chloe and Beca of some guilt. "I just figured you guys were… _distracted_." She continued, winking at the two. Beca rolled her eyes but couldn't fight the blush that always bloomed whenever one of the girls made a comment like that.

"Hot," Stacie added.

"Aw, guys stop, look how embarrassed you're making them." Beca gave Jessica a small, grateful smile as she moved to take a seat – in the back where no one could see her.

"Sorry," Chloe said to the group, blowing past the comments with an ease that Beca envied. "You know how hard it is to wake Becs sometimes." She stood next to Aubrey and waited for her to officially begin the meeting.

Aubrey had her eyes closed and was obviously doing some breathing exercise to try and remain calm. After a few tense moments she nodded and opened her eyes, seeming to be mostly back to her normal level of intensity which was still at ulcer-inducing levels. "Right. Well, now that we're all here, Chloe and I have something to tell you."

"Wait, are _you two_ dating?"

"Are you guys staying another year?"

"Um, Aubrey's straight. I can always tell."

"Are the Bellas being disbanded?"

"Jesus Christ Lilly, why would you ask about their livers?"

"Girls! Girls, stop guessing!" Aubrey yelled, trying to be heard over the chaos. "I swear to the Aca-gods, you will all be running laps around the campus until your feet bleed if you don't listen to me!"

Well, that worked.

"Jeez, Bree…" Chloe murmured, nudging Aubrey, and the other girl immediately started to deflate. Beca was forever in awe of how easily Chloe could almost always center Aubrey with just a few words or a touch. The girl was a fucking magician. Or a witch. A good witch. Like Glinda.

"Right. Sorry. Just… listen, girls. Chloe and I have been talking recently about how much we're going to miss you all and how we're really not ready to say goodbye when we've barely had time to bond." Beca made a face at that since she held the opinion that they had bonded nearly too much for her liking, but then she glanced at Chloe who looked so excited for whatever was coming next that she felt herself smiling already. And, then at Aubrey's next words, that smile quickly fell. "So, we've planned a roadtrip!"

 _Seriously_!? Immediately, the room erupted into more chatter and questions and varying levels of groans or squeals.

"When is it?"

"How long will we be gone?"

"Just… what? Who's paying for this? I'm not paying for this." Beca got an eye roll from Chloe for that comment.

"Can we go to Florida? I wanna see how their crocs stack up to the ones we have back home."

"Beca's got a good point. How are we going to afford this?"

"Ew, I'm definitely not going to Florida."

"Then where _are_ we going?"

At this point, Aubrey looked like she was ten seconds from either murdering every single one of them or having a mental break down and Beca found herself feeling sorry again. This whole thing was clearly a huge stressor for their captain and, despite what she wanted people to think, Beca wasn't heartless and Aubrey was sort of her friend now. So, she grabbed a chair and slammed it against the floor a few times, breaking through the noise.

"Hey! Shut up! Do you seriously think Aubrey hasn't planned literally every part of this out already? Let her speak, assholes." Beca got a few raised eyebrows and couple comments about _her_ defending _Aubrey_ , but she ignored them.

Aubrey gave Beca a small smile, but Chloe was the one to speak. "Mine and Aubrey's parents are paying for the trip as a graduation present, so we don't need to worry about money. We haven't really worked out the timing perfectly yet because we want some of your input, but it'll probably be close to two weeks. And, we have a lot of spots to visit, but we're definitely making L.A. the destination."

The more Chloe spoke, the more excited the group became until it felt like the whole room was buzzing by the time she finished. Even Beca had perked up at the mention of L.A..

"Whoa, so this is actually going to be a thing? We're really doing this?" Denice asked.

Aubrey nodded, appearing more secure now that the news was out. "We are. Well, we are if you girls agree. Should we vote?"

Beca's eyebrows shot up at that. "Wait, did Aubrey Posen, feared aca-dictator who rules with an iron fist just suggest a vote?" Her tone was sarcastic, as usual, but there was also a playful undertone she hoped Aubrey would pick up on. She so didn't want to start a fight today.

Luckily Aubrey rolled her eyes, smiling a bit more. "Well, I considered kidnapping all of you the morning of the trip, but that felt like too much work, even for me."

There were a few chuckles at that, mostly confused over this new, freer Aubrey. Sure, the girl had started to chill out but joking at her own expense? That was new. Beca was ecstatic.

"Well, I'm in," she declared, surprising even herself at being the first to vote yes on spending two weeks trapped in a confined space with nine other girls. Chloe beamed at her though, hands grasped together in that adorable way that made her look like a kid gifted with a new puppy, so Beca couldn't bring herself to be annoyed with her own enthusiasm. She just really wanted to visit L.A., okay?

"Me too," Stacie said. "I could use the L.A. sun."

"Yeah, I'm in," added Cynthia Rose

And soon all the girls had agreed and that somehow led to an ecstatic squeal-fest, complete with hugging all around. It was disgusting and Beca had to remind herself several times that she wasn't enjoying it. It was almost working until Chloe hugged her, throwing her into a cloud of warmth and flowers, and Beca couldn't lie to herself much longer after that. She was excited. Ugh, what had happened to her?

The next couple hours of Beca's day was spent in that same room as the girls debated on what stops they wanted to make. A lot of the options had been nixed because they were too far out of the way or were too obscure, like the Museum of Murder Lilly had suggested. They had agreed to stop at Jackson, Dallas, El Paso, and Phoenix, but a few girls were also making a (very bad) case on why they should also stop at Las Vegas.

"Most of you aren't even old enough to legally drink, so why would you want to go? It makes no sense! And it's three hours out of way." Aubrey had a map, a globe (where the fuck did she even get that?), and google maps out. The girl was playing to win.

"Because it's _Vegas_. Just imagine it," Stacie said, her eyes wide thinking of all the possibilities.

In Aubrey's defense, she seemed to actually consider it, but she ended up looking more constipated than excited. "It honestly, genuinely sounds awful."

"The lights, the theatrics, the drinking!" Amy sing-songed, doing extravagant hand motions as she listed things out.

"The hobos, the drugs, the likeliness that at least three of you will end up married!" Aubrey mocked back, earning herself an actual laugh from Beca.

"She's got a point," Beca said, shrugging.

Cynthia Rose looked at her like she had grown two extra heads. "Girl, what has happened to you?" She then turned to Aubrey and tried to compromise. "Look, how about we decide once we're almost there. If we make good time or we have to leave somewhere early, we'll do Vegas?"

Aubrey pursed her lips and huffed. "Fine. I'll think about it."

Most of the girls cheered like they had already won and, frankly, Beca kind of felt like they had. All they had to do was wait until they got close enough to the city and "accidentally" make a wrong turn. It would be too easy, but Beca wasn't going to tell them that. Vegas honestly sounded horrible, as did most of their stops. Dallas? Really? Chloe had made a great point about being able to crash at her uncle's house, but still. It was in Texas. And so was El Paso for shit's sake! She was going to get so sunburned. Still, though, Beca couldn't help but feel cautiously excited. There was a slight chance she had become a softie. Disgusting.

xxxxx

About five hours later, Beca's mood had done a full 360. There was so much planning and prepping to do already when all she had to do was pack up her stuff to be shipped back home, but now the stress was killing her. She hadn't done any laundry in weeks, wanting to wait until she got home to do it. Money wasn't too much of an issue, but laziness sure as fuck was. Then there was figuring out how she was going to get the stuff she wasn't bringing on the trip back home. And, to top it all off, Beca's brain had suddenly decided that it was time to Freak Out. Thoughts of flat tires, fights, car crashes, seedy hotels with murderous owners, and evil horses trampling her in bumfuck Texas had consumed her mind, getting more bizarre and unreasonable with every passing moment. Beca knew she was being crazy – she still had her wits about her – but the thoughts kept coming.

She was sitting on her bed, legs bouncing and bottom, lip trapped between her teeth when Chloe breezed in, completely unannounced as usual but wholly welcome, especially since Kimmy Jin wasn't there to make some snide remark.

"Hey, Becs, how's the packing going?" Chloe asked. She plopped down next to Beca and knocked their shoulders together, smiling. It helped calm Beca a little and she had a feeling that that was her friend's intention. She could always tell when Beca getting stuck in her own head.

"Um, great. As you can see, I've already finished, and everything is going perfectly," Beca snarked, waving a hand around her room which had been thrown into disarray. She wasn't sure she actually still had a floor at this point. She hadn't seen it in more than three hours.

"Well, at least there's nowhere to go from here but up." Chloe said, trying to lighten Beca's spirits. She had a point. "And your drawers are all empty, so that's… progress."

Beca chuckled, shaking her head. "Seriously, Chlo, I don't think I'll be ready in time. All of my moving out work has just been doubled."

"Well, it's a good thing you have a beautiful, talented, loving, helpful friend here to lend a hand."

"Oh, is Cynthia Rose here?" Beca teased, glancing around her room.

"Oh, shut up!"

"Really though. I can't ask you to do that. Don't you have to pack too? Or plan for the trip?"

"Oh, please," Chloe scoffed. "I've been packed for days and Aubrey won't even let me breathe on her precious notebook timetable thing. She has it covered. Now, let's start with your laundry because, no offense, it smells like my brother's room in here."

Beca felt her cheeks heat up with embarrassment like they always did when Chloe caught her in a less-than-stellar state. It happened far too often for her liking.

And so, Chloe helped Beca like she's always does and Beca only complained about it for the first ten minutes like she always did.

The next morning, when Beca woke with Chloe in her arms, she realized something she should have known a long time ago.

 _Take it easy, take it easy  
Don't let the sound of your own  
Wheels make you crazy_

* * *

 **A/N:** Thanks for reading. I don't know if I'll continue this because I'm not really a prose writer. It's fun though and I have a few ideas on where I want to take it, so we'll see.


End file.
